VIRGINIA EXECUTES KILLER OF WOMAN

AP

Published: August 31, 1989

RICHMOND, Aug. 30—
A man convicted of raping and murdering a 61-year-old woman in 1977 was executed tonight in Virginia's electric chair.

Alton Waye, 34 years old, was pronounced dead at 11:05 P.M. after receiving two 55-second jolts of almost 2,500 volts of electricity, said Wayne J. Farrar, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

In a final statement, Mr. Waye said: ''I would express that what is about to take place is a murder. I don't hate anyone. I forgive everyone involved.''

Mr. Waye sought a stay of execution earlier in the day from the Supreme Court, but the Court refused, 7 to 2, to postpone the execution and consider his case. Mr. Waye, a former textile worker, was also denied clemency today by Gov. Gerald L. Baliles. John Coble, operations officer at the State Penitentiary, said Mr. Waye was baptized Tuesday night. ''He said to tell the people, 'I am blessed,' '' Mr. Coble said.

Mr. Waye was convicted of raping and killing Lavergne B. Marshall on Oct. 14, 1977. Her nude body was found in a bathtub, her face beaten beyond recognition. She had been stabbed 42 times with a butcher knife, and laundry bleach had been poured on the body.

Shortly after the killing, a man who identified himself as Mr. Waye called the police to tell them he had killed a woman, according to trial testimony.

Mr. Waye was the eighth person to die in Virginia's electric chair since the state reinstituted the death penalty in 1977, and the 117th executed in the United States since the Supreme Court's ruling in 1976 allowing reinstatement of capital punishment.